|
Volume 12, Issue 5   REGIONAL NEWS PRACTICAL INFORMATION RESEARCH
eWENR Index: Contains links to all eWENR issues that are currently available for viewing.
Masthead: Learn more about eWENR and its editorial staff.
Subscriptions: Don't miss future issues of eWENR.
World Education Services: Learn more about the organization that brings you eWENR.
Comments: eWENR's editor welcomes your comments. If you have story ideas, suggestions or feedback regarding eWENR, e-mail us with the details.
WENR Archives: You can read WENR back issues from Summer 1995 through Fall 1996.
WENR Article Index Through 1996: Features an index of all WENR articles through Fall 1996.
|
Regional News
There are currently 3,800 students in Malta attending 14 pre-higher education colleges. The establishment of a national technical college would bring these students together under the roof of a single governing body with university status.
At present, Malta University is the country’s sole provider of higher education.
But with the opening of MCTAAS next year, students will have a choice between an academic track offered at the university and an alternative vocational track offered at the proposed technical college.
The number of 18-year-olds enrolled at Malta University has increased from 6 percent in 1987 to about 20 percent today. Although the school would like to see this figure reach the European average of between 30 and 40 percent, some education officials are concerned that MCTAAS will attract a lot of students who otherwise would have enrolled at the university. But officials are hoping that both institutions will benefit from the country’s expanding student population. In the 1980s, state kindergartens were set up in every town — an initiative that enrolled 90 percent of Malta’s three- and four-year-olds.
Those who were four-years old in 1984 are of college age today and are looking to pursue higher education programs.
Student numbers at Malta University have climbed from 1,000 in the early 1980s to 10,000 today. The university is also looking to expand its adult education and international programs, as well. With regard to the latter, Malta University currently enrolls around 400 foreign students who come from 70 different countries.
— Times Higher Education Supplement
|
The government plans to open the Malta College of Technology, Applied Arts and Sciences (MCTAAS). The new institution will provide technical and vocational education for mostly 16 to 19-year-olds and eventually plans to offer degrees.